33 



los8 of property as well as great desliucliuu ol aurnial 

 life. These fires uot only consume different kinds of 

 birds and other wild animals, but domestic fowls — tur- 

 keys especially — occasionally lose their lives by them. 

 The Commissioner of Forestry, under the direction of 

 Secretary Edge, in July, 1896, sent out a circular uiak 

 ing inquiry as to the extent of damage done by the 

 forest fires which took place as previously stated iu 

 May and June of last yeai-. The iuforination given on 

 destruction iu the succeeding paragraph is a summary 

 of what was sent by those who kindly and promptly re 

 sponded to the"fire circular." These reports came from 

 tANenty counties and they represent about one-half of 

 the counties of the Commonwealth which suffered from 

 the ruinous conflagrations which occasioned fully one 

 million dollars loss. Of the ninety correspondents all 

 but six testify to great damage of pheasants or Ruffed 

 Grouse, which in this State nest habitually on the 

 ground. Next in the list we find "rabbits" mentioned 

 by fifty contributors as having been destroyed; 41, tur 

 keys (wild or domestic); 18, squirrels of different kinds: 

 14, quails; 9, other birds; 12. eggs and 3. deer. 



FOR THE COMMON WEALTHS WEAL. 



The preceding paragraphs on bird-slaughter, the mat- 

 ter relating to forest fires and the loss occasioned by 

 them to animal-life, together with the two or three 

 pages that briefly show the enormous amount of loss 

 annually incurred from insect enemies, although some- 

 what foreign to the subject matter of this book, have 

 nevertheless indirectly an important connection with 

 the interests of the agriculturist and poultry raiscT'. 



There are about 212,000 faTiiis in Pennsylvania, and 

 probably every one of the indi\'idnals who resides on a 



;i M 



